


a shorter ride north

by LilacsLast



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, It's not explicit but I think it has to be in here with r/l, R plus L equals J
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-29
Updated: 2016-07-29
Packaged: 2018-07-27 10:51:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7615141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilacsLast/pseuds/LilacsLast
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lyanna lives through the Tower of Joy and is now hiding away at Starfall but there she is faced with the realities of the war and the future.</p>
            </blockquote>





	a shorter ride north

“You promised me, Ned,” Lyanna said seated in the large bed cushioned by a plethora of pillows and her babe tucked at her breast. Ned paced the room. “The Lannisters murdered Elia Martell and her children. You promised me that same fate will not befall my son,”

He stopped his paces to turn and look at her, half mad. “Lya, I have been trying since the moment I found you,”

“We’ve been here for weeks!”

“What will you have me do?” Ned sighed. He looked close to tears and his voice cracked when he spoke next. “I can’t take you both back to Winterfell.” 

“I don’t want to go to Winterfell,” She was no longer the stupid naive girl she had been, who thought of Winterfell as the end to all roads. “I'll go wherever no harm will come to my child. Send me even to Dragonstone if it will keep him safe!”

“That’s the next place Robert will go dragon hunting. You’re safe as long as no one knows you’re here,” 

There was a knock at the door and they both looked to it, startled. Wylla stepped inside. “My lady, my lord,” She addressed both of them with a stilted curtsy, seeming to sense the tension in the room as her eyes darted nervously between Ned and Lyanna. “Lord Astor is asking for both of you in his solar. Would you like me to take the babe for you, Lady Lyanna?”

“Yes, I should just be a few moments longer so that he can have his fill. If he does, he will go right to sleep for you,” Lyanna smiled at Wylla before turning her gaze to Ned. “Go on without me. I will be quick about it.”

Ned nodded and quickly left. Wylla seemed to settle, the fumes of tension swirling about Ned and Lyanna leaving with him. Perhaps it was Lyanna who settled. Wylla went about folding and straightening some of the things in the room. Lyanna smiled watching her fondly. 

Wylla was dark skinned and dark haired and a bit older than Lyanna in her years. Though Lyanna had no sisters, she felt like Wylla could have been one to her with everything they'd been through. Wylla had been there after Rhaegar had come to her time and time again. She had been there when Lyanna they’d received word of her brother’s and father’s deaths, then of Rhaegar’s. And Lyanna was there when Wylla’s daughter had died in the cradle only a fortnight before Lyanna’s son was born.

The baby seemed to be finished and half asleep already, so Lyanna handed him off to Wylla, who took him with great care. Lyanna set to readying herself to meet with Lord Astor Dayne. Her hair was a mess, her dress askew.

“Have you named him yet, my lady?” Wylla said seated in the chair that rocked in the corner of the room. 

Lyanna paused in fixing the bodice of her dress. 

“Rhaegar was sure I would have a girl but I don’t believe Visenya applies any longer.” In more than one sense with his brother and sister dead. The dragon has three heads.

Stupid naive girl. 

“You’re right. A strong lord’s name is needed for this one,”

She had considered Rickard and Brandon briefly. Strong lord’s names they were but she could not bring herself to do it. She and his babe were a shame to her house. But her son would wear Jaehaerys or Daeren like a brand. So he was two months old without a name like a little wildling.

“I’ve thought of Orys. It is a strong name from a great chivalrous lord.” She admitted. It was a bit of irony to her as well. After her betrothal to Robert, Maester Walys had taken great care to educate her in Baratheon history right back to the black haired Targaryen bastard, brother to Aegon and Rhaenys.

“‘Tis a fine name, my lady.” Wylla said brightly as Lyanna quickly brushed her hair. “Do you like Orys, little lordling?” She said to the babe in her arms, who would never be a lord. He merely yawned up at her. Lyanna smiled.

“I will be back soon, Wylla. Do not be afraid to come get me if he fusses too much.” She explained as she left. 

Astor Dayne’s solar was not far from Lyanna’s chambers. They had placed she and Ned in places of honor in the Constellation Keep near the Dayne family themselves. It did not take her long to find. When she entered, Lord Astor was sitting at his table with his wife, Lady Tersa Blackmont, and his sister, Lady Ashara, on a nearby couch. Holland Reed was there too along with the Dayne’s Maester.

Ned was standing by the table looking pensive. 

“Lady Lyanna,” Astor Dayne greeted her and she curtsied. 

“My Lord,”

“Please, have a seat, my lady. We have news,” She had not received good news in upwards of a year. Lyanna looked at Ned, whose returned gaze did nothing to calm her. He only pulled out a chair for her. She sat.

“What is this news?”

“Maester Pentan has received a raven that Robert Baratheon is coming to Starfall.” Lyanna’s breath caught in her chest and her heart stopped with it. She turned to Ned who looked to be steeling himself. 

“Then we must leave!” Lyanna’s voice was full of unchecked panic. She grabbed Ned’s sleeve and he took her hand. 

“We’ll be gone before dawn breaks,”

“I'm afraid you can’t.” Astor interjected. “Robert writes that he is coming for you and that he is bringing more men than Starfall can withstand. If I do not present you to him, my men will be decimated.”

“Prince Doran has more than enough men and a good reason to fight!” Ned protested. She could only see red, red blood and her son’s face. “Send a letter to Sunspear!”

“Robert will be here and gone by the time any men from Sunspear reach us,” 

“Astor, you’re sacrificing her son. Arthur died for that boy!” That was the lady Ashara jumping to her feet. Ned stiffened beside Lyanna but she was grateful to Ashara none the less.

“I know what Arthur died for,” snapped Astor. “Now, you’ll all have us dying for Rhaegar’s foolishness. ” 

Lyanna’s cheeks heated. Rhaegar’s foolishness and her own were interchangeable.

“Besides,” Said the Maester in a voice that sounded like he was used to breaking up disputes. “The letter made no mention of the boy, my dear lady. It was my aid, Maester Patrek, who wrote the letter to King’s Landing and he knew nothing of the boy.”

“And it will remain that way,” Lyanna urged. “We’ll leave as soon as Robert does.”

“Robert wishes you to return with his party to King’s Landing.” Astor said.

“We’ll deny him,” She said. “We'll say Ned wants to go north to see his son as soon as possible,”

“He is King and he’s bringing an army,” Even Ned was not on her side.

“Leave the babe here,” Ashara said. “We will keep the prince safe.”

Lyanna was aghast at that but before she could speak, Lord Astor Dayne had his voice raised again.

“I’ve done all you asked of me since this mess began, Ashara. But the king and even Prince Doran would kill for this child’s head and I have my people to protect. I want no more bodies laid at my gates.” 

“Astor, my dear, you might as well be throwing him into the dragon pit,” Lady Tersa said.

“I do not wish to but we have so few options,” Said Astor. Lyanna had to agree with him until Howland Reed spoke for the first time. 

“Lord Eddard could claim the baby as his own son,” 

“But my son is at Riverrun with the Tullys,” Ned said.

“Not to masquerade as your trueborn son but as your bastard,”

“No one will believe Noble Ned Stark’s fathered a bastard.” Lyanna interjected. Brandon perhaps but her son is far too young to be Brandon’s. Robert was Ned’s best friend. He knew him best of all and he knew Ned's character.

“We all want to believe everyone else is capable of our own levels of depravity. Robert might delight in knowing Ned has fathered a bastard same as he has.” Howland said. 

“Robert would like that,” Ned seemed to be thinking it over and Lyanna could not believe it.

“You would raise my son as your own?”

“I promised to keep him safe,” 

“And he could live at Winterfell,” Lyanna realized. She thought of listening to Old Nan’s stories by the fire, playing in the godswood with her brothers, riding horses through their lands. Her son learning and playing and growing where she had. I had her heart swell. 

“It would be best to still have him gone from Starfall when Robert arrives,” Lord Astor said.

“I could take him north to Winterfell with your nursemaid,” Howland suggested and Ned thought this was perfect.

“And in the meantime, we will keep King Robert happy.” Lady Tersa said standing. “Ashara and I will start planning our guest’s visit. The king will have no reason to use that bloody army of his here,” She left after that, taking Lady Ashara by the hand as she did. Her good sister did not look happy about it but she stayed quiet.

“What is being done with Maester Patrek?” Ned asked Lord Astor.

“He’s in the dungeon's now,” Lord Astor said. “He’ll remain there until after Robert leaves and we have time to deal with him,”

Howland Reed came to stand next Lyanna and took her hand.

“I will look after them both as if they were my own kin, Lyanna. No harm will come to them.” Howland Reed said with the devotion of an oath.

“Thank you, Howland,” She said.

“We should begin planning Lord Reed’s trip,” Lord Astor said. “What provisions he and Wylla will need as well as the babe. It is a months’ long trip,”

Months. Lyanna imagined being away from her son for months but she only could see meeting him at Winterfell again. She would be able to go to Winterfell again. She could go home.

________________________________________________________________

Robert of the House Baratheon, the First of his Name, King of the Andals and the Rhoynar and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm arrived a weeks later with as much pomp and circumstance as such a name called for. It seemed like the whole of the seven kingdom was parading through Starfall’s courtyard before Robert graced them with his presence. Dorne remained hostile to the King and that would be why his party was so large. The sheer number of men would force Astor to allow Robert’s visit. 

The Dayne siblings and their household were lined up to greet the king, starting with Astor and his lady beside him, then Ashara, and lastly little Lady Allyria who was only six seemed to get fidgety after a few minutes of standing still under the hot Dornish sun in her elaborate lilac dress. Lyanna, felt empathy for the little girl because she was standing to Ned’s side sweating even in one of Ashara’s gauzy deep purple Dornish dresses.

Beside that her breasts were swollen and tender. Howland Reed had taken Wylla and the baby from Starfall almost a week ago. Lyanna had held her babe all the night before unable to let him go. She fed him for the last time that morning and readied him for the long ride north, then kissed his head and handed him to Wylla. “We’ll see you soon, my lady,” Wylla promised with the saddest smile. She would see him again. She would be riding north soon too. Orys. Winterfell. Home. It became Lyanna’s mantra as Ned took the cradle from her room and she breasts filled milk, as nights without midnight feedings became regular. Touching her caused the embers of pain to roar to an almost unbearable blaze but the Maester had said it would only be temporary pain and so would her distance from her son.

Eventually Robert who appeared dressed in his familiar armor. He looked as handsome as he had the last time she had seen him. This time he had a golden crown of antlers dotted with black stones on his beautiful brow. It suited him though she did not find him any more alluring with it because she knew how many lives were lost to place it there and the child that might be killed to keep it.

Robert lept from his horse when he spotted her and then walked, or more aptly staggered to Lyanna while she held her breath. She pictured her son’s face and raising him at Winterfell and asked the old gods for strength. Robert stood before looking like he might cry. “Your Grace,”

“My lady,” Robert breathed as he took her hand and knelt to the ground before her. “I prayed for this moment and it is by the grace of the gods that I see your beautiful face again.” He pressed his lips to her hand. Lyanna did not know what to say. She had never been good at playing this part.

Ned looked at her expectantly. 

“Ah—I thank you, …your Grace,” She said. “It was by your—righteous campaign that I was rescued. Now we are reunited.”

Robert rose from his knees with a grin on his face. He gave a hearty laugh. “And it only gets better from here! I will never have you gone from my side from now on. We will be married upon our return to King’s Landing!”

Lyanna’s eyes grew wide. Winterfell and her son’s face both died before her eyes and she felt sick. She could barely hear the way that Robert’s bannerman cheered his announcement. She shared a look with Ned, who obviously was as surprised as she was.

“What a joyous occasion it will be, my friend,” Ned said to Robert who seemed to see him for the first time. His grin grew larger at that. Lyanna squashed a betrayed feeling toward her brother. Ned could not reject him here and now. It would only anger him inopportunely. “But this is one as well. Let us save talk of weddings for later and enjoy the moment. I believe that Lord Astor’s household has prepared a feast for you.” 

Robert laughed again. “You’re right, Ned!” He hugged Ned and then kept an arm around him after he pulled away. “It is good to see you again too and see that you’ve had time to get over the bit of unpleasantness we had before.”

Two children savagely murdered was not a bit of unpleasantness and Ned was probably more preoccupied by it now than before. He said nothing of it though.

“I should introduce you to our host, Robert, Lord Astor Dayne, his wife and his lovely sisters,” 

Astor was next to face Robert giving him run of Starfall and introducing the ladies at his side. Astor made mention of the feast again which had Robert declaring that he desired nothing more than meat on his plate, wine in his cup, and his lady at his side. He wrapped an arm around Lyanna’s shoulders and led her inside of the Great Hall like a dog on a leash.

She was seated at his left at the high table with Ned at her other side. It was a queen’s place and she was no queen. It disregarded custom but Robert was King. He could do what he wished. 

He could marry whoever he wished. Yet he wished for her. 

Freedom from Robert was the very thing she had gone with Rhaegar for but even in her new form of captivity, she was sure that Rhaegar’s violations had left her saved from Robert’s. Men may like experience in their whores but they like virtue in their ladies. A man was only renting a whore’s body for a few hours. He owned the body of his lady. 

No different was Lyanna than his lands to Robert. Both were his property and if someone had taken his land, he surely would want it back. But then if they took it and pillaged it, ravaged it, and salted it so that nothing would grow there for a hundred years, Robert would certainly not want it. No one would want it. It was ruined. Lyanna was counting on that. 

Perhaps Robert loved her, truly. Perhaps it was as Ned had said. He was a good man. A true one. Yet Lyanna knew the nature of men, even those who she loved. She knew Brandon took Barbery Dustin’s maidenhead knowing well marriage was not his to offer and wanted nothing to do with her afterward. She knew Rhaegar truly cared for Elia and loved their children yet he forsook her when she was barren. Rhaegar had been in Lyanna’s bed, in her body. She had been used up like Barbery and Elia. So she was wary of Robert’s wanting. Perhaps she was still a prize to him that he gleefully revelled in having won. Glee faded. Even the sweetest of loves turned sour. She would be happy when it did. She only hoped it happened before he took her as his bride. 

Yet their wedding was all he seemed to talk about at the feast. Their wedding feast would be greater than this one, he assured her as he picked his teeth with a bone of his third honeyed chicken. 

“You will enjoy the night. Everything will be pleasing to you.” Robert said, only his scoundrel’s smile giving away any ribald thought. Lyanna felt her stomach revolt and pursed her lips. 

“What’s the matter, my lady?” Robert asked.

“I miss Ben,” It wasn’t a lie, wholly. “How nice it would be have him at the wedding.” Mayhaps the time it would take Benjen to travel to King’s Landing would postpone the ceremony long enough for Robert to lose interest in her.

“We will miss him. Your little brother is quite a laugh.” Robert agreed. “Not, like this one here,” He thumbed at Ned.

“What’s he saying about me?” Ned turned from his conversation with Lord Astor’s steward. 

“You’re a bore, Ned,” Robert teased. “I lived with you for years and hardly did you once make mischief without my help!” 

“You were just in trouble far too much,” Ned smiled. “Jon Arryn’s hair has gone white from your behavior, not old age,”

“And Noble Ned would never dream of causing trouble,” Lyanna found herself saying. They called him that when they were children. Brandon’s uninventive origination.

“Not you too, Lya,” Ned smiled at her before looking at Robert. “I’ve done my portion of dishonorable things,” 

“Like what? Not wiping your feet at the door? Not tucking in your chair after a meal?” 

“Breaking my marriage vows,” Ned admitted in low tones. He was doing this now of all times? Was it proper to claim a bastard at a feast? Whether it was or not Robert’s interest was peaked. 

“Lord Eddard Stark took a woman beside his lady wife to bed?” Robert looked giddy. “What did she look like? Was she a pretty one? She must have been to make you forget your honor,”

“It brings me shame to speak of it,”

“Then why bring it up?” Robert asked. “Tell me about it. I am not your Lady wife who needn’t ever know,” 

Robert’s flippant attitude about infidelities brought Lyanna no great comfort but all other comforts already seemed as far off as Winterfell now.

“I would shield her from it if I could, but I’ve sired a son. I’ve sent a man to the Riverlands to collect my child and take him to Winterfell.”

“The Riverlands?” Robert laughed. “Why, Ned, you spread your seed there like I spread Rhaegar’s rubies when I smashed by hammer into his chest.”

Lyanna felt her stomach tighten again, and she clutched at the arm of her chair. Something must of shown on her face. 

“My lady, have you not heard the story of how I killed that bastard?” Robert smiled.

“Ned told me,” Lyanna did not even fake a smile.

“It’s quite a story and I’m sure I tell it better than Ned here,”

“Robert, is this the place for such tales?” Ned cautioned. 

“We’re celebrating, Ned! Celebrating your sweet sister’s return from the clutches of the dragon! Celebrating the dragon’s death! Perhaps they’ll call me Robert Dragonslayer?” Robert laughed from his belly and his men along with him let out a roar throughout the hall. 

One the knights stood and raised his glass. “Death to all dragons!”

“May they all burn for eternity in the Seven Hells! Long live the King!” Another shouted. And all the men cheered as Robert laughed.

“Excuse me, my King. I’m not feeling well. The chicken.” She offered before she rushed from the Hall. She rushed down corridors and through the courtyard to the keep and up the stairs two at time to her chamber. 

Ashara’s beautiful dress, she shed quickly for her bed gown, though it was still light outside. She held her son so often wearing it that the white cotton still smelled a little of him. Lyanna wished for something familiar. Soon nothing would be familiar beside a man above her kissing her roughly, groping her breasts. She endured it with Rhaegar and his prophecy. She could not endure it for Robert. She could feel Rhaegar’s hands, thin long fingers and she could feel Robert’s larger thicker ones. She remembered the pain and blood. 

Tears filled her eyes and she hid her face in her pillow. Ben mocked her once for crying over Rhaegar’s sad song. She wanted Ben to laugh at her again and call her stupid. In the chance to do it over again, she would listen. Rhaegar Targaryen was a cruel liar but she was a fool for listening to him. Thousands died for her. Her father. Her brother. Who else lost their fathers and brothers because she was stupid? She thought of Rodrik Cassel who's brother died just outside her tower window. Martyn had a son only two younger than her who had always been her friend. Arthur Dayne had been her friend even if was Rhaegar's too and he'd died too.

A knock at the door brought Lady Ashara practically glowing in her pretty dark purple dress. It was dotted with silvery-white jewels that made it appear as though she had captured the night sky for herself alone. It made her pretty face the shining moon. Something about her made Lyanna uneasy.

“Ned asked me to check on you.” She smiled.

“It’s my stomach,”

“Yes, I can hardly stomach the usurper either,” Ashara spoke so brashly that Lyanna sputtered. Something angry flared in her to defend Robert, or more likely attack Ashara.

“That’s not what I--You shouldn’t call him that. He took the throne the same way Aegon took it.” She did not believe it even as it fell from her mouth. Even Aegon had not murdered babies.

“Then why did you run when he mentioned Rhaegar?” Ashara asked, sitting at the end of Lyanna’s bed. She was unperturbed by Lyanna’s anger.

“It wasn’t for Rhaegar. It was for my son.” Lyanna no longer liked the taste of Rhaegar’s wine that masked false prophecies and unasked for caresses as something sweeter. 

Ashara Dayne smiled at her, taking her hand and squeezing.

“Rhaegar’s son will be the great king Rhaegar could not be.” Did Ashara think this was comforting? If Arthur believed Rhaegar he had never let on to it. Lyanna believed he didn’t because he’d always been so kind to her. Yet here was his sister talking mad. Ashara thought her son was Rhaegar’s Promised Prince.

“My son isn't a prince. He's a bastard.” Lyanna spat. 

Ashara hissed. “You would have your son deprived of his birthright?”

Her purple eyes burned like Rhaegar’s did, like only the hottest parts of the fire, like dark wine in candlelight. He liked to look at her while he thrusted. He held her chin so that she could not hide her face. Lyanna pulled away her hand and bared her teeth like the wolf she had forgotten she was.

“You would have him deprived of his life! Only mothers weep for dead bastards. You must weep for yours. Do you want me to weep for mine?” Lyanna was almost shouting. She had heard things whispered at the tower between Arthur and Rhaegar. Ashara had been pregnant with her own brother’s daughter but she’d died before she was born.

Ashara stared at Lyanna with an open mouth. “I wish that on no one,”

“Then leave my son to his life. And leave my room.”

“I will tell your brother and Robert that you are indisposed but remember that Rhaegar died, and my princess, and our brothers,” Ashara said, standing from the bed. “And their deaths cannot be for nothing. There had to be a reason.”

Ashara was gone as soon as she had come. Lyanna grit her teeth laid down again on the bed. How could Ashara be so diluted? This was all because Lyanna was all just a stupid silly girl and everyone had died for nothing. War was a curse and death came without a cause. There was no reason for any of this except for stupidity.

The orange of sunset cast a burnt glow through her westward window, but Lyanna turned to her side away from it. Her anger was pulled out like riptide as the waves of sleep washed over her. 

She dreamt of swordplay in a snowy godswood and Ben with pink cheeks and happy blue eyes. It seemed marvelous at first. The snow swirled around them as they danced, sticks clack, clack, clacking against each other. She nearly had her little brother beaten, pushed up against a tree. Her stick was pressed against his padded doublet. A bird cawwed above her and she looked up to the grey winter sky. Then she looked back to Ben but it was all wrong because that wasn’t Ben. The eyes Lyanna swore were blue, became Rhaegar’s dark purple. It was her son, she realized. Orys. Suddenly she wasn't holding a stick to his chest. She was far off watching her son who looked like Ben stand alone in the snow. She tried to run to him but then he was gone. All she saw was blood on snow. Then a baby with brains and blood spilling out.

The dream woke her just as the light of day was barely creeping through the window.

Unable to go back to sleep, she ventured down the corridor to Ned’s room. She was unsurprised to find her big brother awake, fully dressed and pulling on his boot.

“You should sleep more,” She said from the doorway.

“I could say the same of you,” Ned countered but looked similarly unsurprised to see her.

“I'm still expecting early morning hungry cries.” She lied and he looked away.

“I’m sorry, Lya,”

“Don't, Ned,” She smiled at him. “I'm so grateful to you. You're doing this at your own cost. Your honor tarnished, your wife shamed.”

“Many otherwise honorable men have bastards and Catelyn is a Tully. Her words say family and duty before honor. If she takes them to heart, she will understand.” 

Lyanna doubted this. She never met Catelyn Tully but she had once been in a similar place. She had loathed Robert for his indiscretion and he hadn’t even made vows to her then. 

“Mayhaps she will hold her tongue for you. Catelyn Tully is a better lady than I,” Lyanna sat on the bed beside Ned. “She married the man her father wanted for her.”

“I am not the man Hoster Tully wanted.” He said and she looked up at him, grasping his hand in hers. He and Brandon had the same eyes, grey like a winter sky. She took the light out of Brandon’s and cast a shadow into Ned’s. “You don’t have to marry Robert if you don’t wish to. He will find a wife soon. Tywin Lannister has already put forth his daughter.” 

“And Robert seems keen on having a bride whose dowry was paid in dead babies?” Lyanna snapped. Tywin Lannister put those children in their graves not four months ago and was already set to put his grandchildren in their cribs and his daughter on their mother’s throne. It was half her fault he had the opportunity.

Ned grimaced.

“He thinks she's beautiful,” He admitted after a bit and she could feel the lie.

“That’s how he put it?”

“He thinks she will look…pleasing…spread out upon his bed.” Ned blundered through the statement.

“Robert would wed me and bed Cersei Lannister,” She was unsurprised.

“You don’t have to marry Robert, Lya.” Ned insisted. She had run away so she did not have to marry him and live an unwanted life. But there was Rhaenys and Aegon, Elia Martell, Brandon, Father, and even Arthur Dayne who would never live any life, wanted or not. What right did she have to live hers?

“Rejecting Robert will only serve to start another war.” She said. “We lost too much in the last one and we have too much to lose in this one,”

“Robert will fight for what he believes is his.” Ned agreed but he looked at her so helplessly. “But you would live so far from Winterfell?” 

“You said I could not go home and I was a fool to ever think I could.”

"I was a fool to think Robert wouldn't want this," He ran a hand down his face. She was foolish not to expect it either. When would she learn that things were never went as you wanted them to. “I cannot protect you in King’s Landing.”

“I only ever asked you to protect my son,” Lyanna pushed herself up on her elbows. “I trust you to keep your word, Ned. Be a good father to him. Treat him as you will treat Robb.”

“I will.” He said like an oath and it soothed her. She smiled but he did not. “Robert asked his name. I did not know what to say. I called him ‘Jon.’” He looked guilty. 

“He is your son,” She said. “Name him what you please,” She thought of Jon Arryn, a practical stranger to her, but Ned’s good brother and foster father. It was a good name for a son of Ned Stark. 

“Jon Snow, it is then,” Ned said. “The gates of Winterfell will always be open to you. You can visit whenever you please, Lya, to see him, and everyone.”

“As much as Robert let’s me,” She amended.

________________________________________________________________

There was no time to delay Robert's departure because Dorne was no friend to Robert and he could only test their limits for so long. Three days past before they left again and with each day, Lyanna steeled herself to her reality. She was marrying Robert Baratheon. She had decided that for herself this time and she would do that for her son and for the Realm. It did not make her stomach sit easier at the thought of the bedding ceremony. 

The morning they were set to leave she could hardly contain her nervousness. While breaking fast, Lyanna dropped and shattered a glass pitcher of milk. Servants hurried to clean it up while Robert laughed at her clumsiness and Tersa Blackmont brushed off any need for apology. 

She'd almost gone to tears over it. Which was ridiculous. She remembered Ben laughing at her and her tears disappeared. 

Later they went out into the yard where their horses were already saddled and Robert’s men mostly mounted and set to leave with them. 

Goodbyes were all that was left to do. The Daynes were lined up the same way that they had been when Robert arrived. 

“Thank you, most graciously for allowing my sister and I respite,” Ned said as he shook Astor Dayne’s hand. 

Among other things, Lyanna added in her head as she curtsied before Astor and Tersa. She hoped they knew how much she was gateful for their help. Ashara and Ned were saying their own goodbyes. When Lyanna moved to say goodbye to her, Ashara pulled her into a hug.  
“I wish only good things on you,” Ashara whispered in her ear.

“Thank you,” Lyanna said and pulled away. She did not know if it comforted her or not. 

“Lady Lyanna,” Little Allyria Dayne, the last of the row, squealed. She thrust a fist full of purplish daisies toward Lyanna and the way she smiled looked so much like Arthur that it broke Lyanna’s heart. “Safe travels, my lady,”

Lyanna smiled a true smile and took them kindly. “Thank you, Allyria. They’re very pretty!” She tucked one behind her ear.

“Let’s get a move on!” Robert yelled as he mounted his horse across the yard. “Before the daylight is gone,”

Lyanna steeled herself to cross the yard to her horse. She had to ride at his side. She would do everything at his side now. She was Lady Lyanna Stark of Winterfell and she would be Queen of the Seven Kingdoms and so she would not cry for herself or her son. She wasn’t only protecting her son, but the Realm itself. That would be her penance and she would handle it as it came. Now all she had to do was mount a horse and ride at his side. This would only be a shorter ride north.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic that I've finished in years and the first I've posted on AO3. I've actually started plotting a series. I'm really proud of myself?? I hope it's okay and I hope that I can keep the ball rolling on the second part!
> 
> Side note...
> 
> The flowers that Allyria gives Lyanna are Michaelmas Daisies. In the language of flowers they mean 'farewell' but I don't think this is the last we'll see of the Daynes.


End file.
